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According to a report in Sinopec News on January 22, 2026, Turkish **Oil Company and ExxonMobil have recently signed a memorandum of understanding regarding cooperation; the two parties will explore new oil and gas resources in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Alpaslan Bayraktar, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey, said, “The core of this cooperation is to combine Petrolleri Türkiye’s experience in deep-water exploration with ExxonMobil’s technology, in order to improve operational efficiency and discover new oil and gas resources.” This cooperation is built on the growing exploration results in the Black Sea region. The Sakarya gas field in the Black Sea region has become a cornerstone for Turkey to reduce its dependence on energy imports. Gas production from this field began in September 2023, and production levels rose steadily to 2.3 billion cubic meters in 2024; currently, the daily output is 9.5 million cubic meters. Currently, the total proven natural gas reserves in the Black Sea region amount to approximately 785 billion cubic meters. The Turkish Ministry of Energy stated that this reserve volume is sufficient to meet the country’s household gas needs for over 3 years. In the third quarter of 2026, Turkish State Oil plans to put a new floating production platform into use, which will help increase the daily output of the Sakarya gas field to over 18 million cubic meters.